Notable Kentucky African Americans Database

<Race Categories>

Filipino Students Denied Admittance to School [Louisville, KY]
Start Year
: 1904
In 1904, four engineering students from the Philippines were denied admittance to DuPont Manual Training High School in Louisville, KY. The Kentucky Board of Education ruled that the students' color debarred them from the privilege of public schools. The question the board pondered was whether Filipinos were Negroes. It was decided that the term "Colored" applied to Negroes, Indians, and all other brown races. The law required the separation of races in Kentucky schools. The four students were located elsewhere; they were members of the Filipino Student Movement, an American government plan for the Americanization of selected Filipino students. The first group of students was comprised of 75 males between the ages of 16 and 21 who ranked highest on the program examination and met other criteria. Four students were recommended for Kentucky University [University of Kentucky] and four for the DuPont Manual Training High School. None of the students came to Kentucky: the engineering students were redirected elsewhere and the Kentucky University students decided to attend the University of Michigan. When a student completed his studies in the United States, he was to return to the Philippines to become an employee of the civil service for the equal number of years spent in the United States. Control of the Philippines had been passed from Spain to the United States with the signing of the 1898 Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American War; the United States paid 20 million dollars to Spain for the Philippines. For more see "Their color debars them," Spokane Daily Chronicle, 07/07/1904, p. 3; "Filipino students," Evening Bulletin, 07/07/1904, p. 4; "The Filipino students," Evening Bulletin, 09/07/1904, p. 1; and p. 929 of the "Report of the Superintendent of Filipino Students in the United States covering the Filipino Student Movement, from its inception to June 30, 1904," in the Fifth Annual Report of the Philippine Commission 1904, Part 3, by the Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department. For more about the U.S.-Philippines relationship, see Bound to Empire, by H. W. Brands and Crucible of Empire, by J. C. Bradford.
Subjects: Education and Educators,
Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky,
Race CategoriesGeographic Region: Philippines / Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky / Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky

Negrito (in Kentucky)
Birth Year
: 1896
This entry was added in response to the reference question, "Were Negro jockeys in Kentucky descendents of Negrito slaves brought to Kentucky prior to 1865?" No evidence has been found at this time to support the idea that Negro jockeys in Kentucky were descendents of Negrito slaves.

In 1896, there was an article written about a "Negrito" in Kentucky. The article, "The Pygmy in the United States" by Dr. James Weir, was published in Appleton's Popular Science Monthly, May-October 1896, v.49, pp.46-56. No name is given in the article for the man being referred to as a "Negrito." He was said to have been born in Bayou la Têche, LA, and was 50 years old when he was brought to Kentucky by his old mistress who was not named in the article. The man was said to be 4 feet 9 inches tall, and there are two pictures of him in Dr. Weir's article. The term "Negrito" is a Spanish word for "little Negro" or "little black person." The term has been used in reference to ethnic groups throughout the world, but in particular to populations in isolated areas of Southeast Asia. "Negritos" have been characterized as less than five feet in stature, with dark skin, and wiry, bushy, or tightly curled hair. For more than a century, the racial, cultural, and biological origins of persons defined as "Negritos" has been debated and analyzed by researchers such as Dr. James Weir, Louis Lapicque, David P. Barrows, R. Bennet Bean, and Clarissa Scholes et al. There are hundreds of journal articles and books written about populations in various geographic regions who are referred to as "Negritos," though not in Kentucky. There are also a number of newspaper articles about "Negritos" in Southeast Asia, including about 35 articles in Kentucky newspapers found in Kentucky Digital Library dated from 1896-1920. For more about Louis Lapicque see his entry in the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 2008, v. 8, pp.29-30. See D. P. Barrows, "The Negrito and allied types in the Philippines," American Anthropologist, July-September 1910, v.12, no.3, pp.358-376; R. B. Bean, "Types of man in the yellow-brown race," American Journal of Anatomy, March 1925, vol.35, no.1, pp.63-80; Clarissa Scholes et. al. "Genetic diversity and evidence for population admixture in Batak Negritos from Palawan," American Journal of Physical Anthropology, September 2011, vol.146, no.1, pp.62-72; and see I. Arenillas and J. A. Arz, "Hominid Descriptions" on pp.13-25 in the 21st Century Anthropology; a reference handbook by H. J. Birx, 2010.
Subjects: Race CategoriesGeographic Region: Bayou la Teche, Louisiana / Kentucky

Records: Race=African
The term "African" was not widely used in the U.S. Federal Census to define race; however it can be found as early as the 1860 Slave Schedules. The term was used much more heavily in the Census of Canada, and the slave registers of former British Colonial Dependencies such as Trinidad, Barbados, and the Bahamas. In the United Sates, the term was used more on birth and death records, including 15 birth records in Kentucky between 1897-1910, and at least 283 Kentucky death records between 1917 and the early 1930s. Over 300,000 WWI draft registration records for the U.S. Armed Services have the term "African" written on the line for race, and at least 9,886 of those records are for men born in Kentucky.
Subjects: Race CategoriesGeographic Region: United States / Canada / British Colonial Dependencies / Kentucky

Records: Race=Brown
"Brown" is one of the five color typology for humans that was developed by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840), a founder of scientific racism theories. The term would come to be used to define race and ethnicity. For centuries, various groups of people throughout the world have been defined as "brown." The term was used in the United States to assign race on death certificates, military records, immigration records, federal census records between 1910-1920, and state census records in Iowa and Kansas between 1836-1925. Some persons whose race was given as "brown" on the various records, may be regarded as African American today. In Kentucky, there are more than 300 death records with race marked as "brown," they are dated between 1852-1953. There are also at least seven WWI draft registration records (registered in KY) with the term "brown" written in the space for race, three of these persons were born in Italy and two were born in the Philippines, one was born in Kentucky, and one did not have place of birth.
Subjects: Race CategoriesGeographic Region: United States / Kentucky

Records: Race=Negro
Start Year
: 1850
The term "Negro" is yet another term for African Americans found in the U.S. Federal Census as early as 1850, and in state census records such as the 1856 Iowa State Census. In the "Second Census" of Kentucky, for the year 1800, there are two person with the term "Negro" included in their names: George -Negro- Stafford in Gallatin County, and Moses -Negro- Tyre in Bullitt County. The term was also used on U.S. marriage, birth, death, and military records, and on ship passenger lists. Due to the penmanship of census workers, there are instances where race is not clearly noted on the schedules, and it is difficult to decipher if a "W" was written for white, or an "N" for Negro. For the state of Kentucky, the clearly written term "Negro" can be found as early as the 1900 U.S. Federal Census [column number 5: "Race or Color"], up to the late 1990s marriage licenses.
Subjects: Race CategoriesGeographic Region: United States / Kentucky